Phase change materials can be used in a number of applications such as ovonic threshold switches and phase change memory (PCM). Different physical states of the phase change material have different levels of electrical resistance. For example, one state, such as an amorphous state, can have a high electrical resistance, while another state, such as a crystalline state, can have a low electrical resistance. In PCM, these different levels of electrical resistance can be used to store binary information. Each state is designated a different binary value, and once stored, information can be read by detecting the electrical resistance of the material. The fact that each state persists once fixed makes PCM a valuable non-volatile memory (NVM) type.